NCI Principal Deputy Director Dr. Douglas R. Lowy

Douglas R. Lowy, M.D., has served as principal deputy director since July 2010, helping to lead NCI’s key scientific initiatives. He has previously served as acting director three times during his tenure, most recently from April 2022 through September 2022.

As an NCI leader, Dr. Lowy has supported NCI-Designated Cancer Centers, increased investment in health disparities and pediatric oncology research, and tirelessly championed investigator-initiated research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Lowy led the evaluation of various SARS-CoV-2 commercial antibody testing devices submitted to the FDA. He was also appointed as co-chair of the SARS-CoV-2 Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) Vaccines Working Group, which published authoritative articles on topics such as the importance of enrolling high-risk participants and underrepresented minorities in COVID-19 vaccine trials. 

As NCI acting director from 2015 to 2017, Dr. Lowy led key initiatives, including the Precision Medicine Initiative and Cancer Moonshot℠. In the Precision Medicine Initiative, the NCI-MATCH trial was the first of its kind to use genomic sequencing to plan treatment and one of the fastest-accruing NCI clinical trials. Its results led to several FDA approvals. In the Cancer Moonshot, the ongoing ESCUDDO trial is studying whether one dose of the HPV vaccine works as well as two doses. Findings could influence how many people get and have access to HPV vaccinations, both nationally and worldwide.

Dr. Lowy is also chief of the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology in NCI’s Center for Cancer Research. His research interests include the biology of papillomaviruses and the regulation of normal and neoplastic cell growth. His papillomavirus research collaborates closely with Dr. John Schiller, with whom he has coauthored more than 150 papers over the past 30 years.

In the 1980s, Drs. Lowy and Schiller studied the genetic organization of papillomaviruses and identified the oncogenes encoded by the virus. In the late 1990s, they began work on papillomavirus vaccines and the papillomavirus life cycle. Their laboratory was involved in the initial development, characterization, and clinical testing of the preventive virus-like, particle-based HPV vaccines used in three FDA-approved HPV vaccines. Dr. Lowy’s efforts also support expanding HPV screening in addition to vaccination.

Dr. Lowy’s growth regulation research includes prior studies that established the importance of the RAS gene family in cancer and the main mechanisms by which the NF1 tumor suppressor gene regulates normal cell growth. This aspect of his research now focuses primarily on the DLC family of tumor suppressor genes and their mechanism of action. 

Dr. Lowy received the 2019 Association of American Cancer Institutes’ Distinguished Scientist Award for his long-term research on the molecular biology of tumor viruses and growth regulation, his role in enabling the development of HPV vaccines, and his exploration of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes and their signaling pathways. Other honors include the 2020 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Distinguished Public Service Award and the 2021 AACR-Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research in recognition of his outstanding leadership of NCI during his terms as acting director and his contributions to NIH’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Lowy, along with Dr. Schiller, received the Federal Employee of the Year Service to America Medal from the Partnership for Public Service in 2007, and the Sabin Gold Medal Award from the Sabin Vaccine Institute in 2011. In November 2014, they were honored by President Obama with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. In September 2017, the two received the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the country’s most prestigious honor for biomedical research, for their significant research leading to the development of HPV vaccines. They were also recognized for contributing toward HPV vaccines with the 2018 Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research. Most recently, the two received the 2022 Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Public Health, alongside Professor Ian Frazer of the University of Queensland in Australia. 

Dr. Lowy received his medical degree from New York University Grossman School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine at Stanford University and dermatology at Yale University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Medicine of the NAS.